


No Need to Spell It Out

by Serinah



Category: Fractions Hawkeye - freeform, Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel ambiguous
Genre: Gen, Natasha centric, Outtakes, Tony is a young arms dealer, no one knowes who clint it, not yet romantic, of something to be written, outside pov, spy sequence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:08:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21915769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serinah/pseuds/Serinah
Summary: Nat is on a mission. She doesn't know who to trust, but she's mostly sure she can trust Phil Coulson.(An AU of an AU I'm writing, where Nat joined SHIELD independently from Clint and she has no idea who Clint is.)
Relationships: Clint Barton/Tony Stark, IronHawk
Comments: 12
Kudos: 43





	No Need to Spell It Out

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Extraction](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23836261) by [Serinah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serinah/pseuds/Serinah). 



> Unfortunately, this story is not at all about Natasha, but I love her, so I wrote this. Couldn't get it out of my head while I was writing 'Extraction'. She'll have a few good moments in it but that's it. I'm sorry :(
> 
> TY if you take your time to read it :)

The man is called Daniel Lorraine, 23, ostensibly from Boston. The last digital print was a speeding ticket from about four years ago and the next one now, a plane ticket from Dushanbe to Abu Dhabi. Nothing in between, no clue about how he got out of the US. Also, as grainy and awful as document pictures get, the one on his old driving license seems to have darker hair and the nose is all wrong.

Natasha doesn't need anyone to spell it out to her what it all means. But the fact that this is not blondie's real name, doesn't mean that she can't track his movements now.

After she spies him actually boarding, she buys herself a ticket to Heathrow and calls Coulson.

"I need either an agent in London or to hijack the Heathrow CCTV."

To his credit, Coulson goes into mission mode right away. "How quickly do you need it?"

"In about three and a half hours… Thank you, " she mouths the last one to the official and shakes her head about the luggage. "I can give you the full overview in a minute, sir." She smiles pleasantly but distractedly, looking through her purse, trying to not be seen by most of the cameras. "I've checked in, sir. Will arrive in London in a little over four hours." There is no reply, but she knows Coulson well enough to know what he expects to hear. "Stark has acquired a leech and I’m trying to determine if he's the usual garden variety of weed or if there's something weird going on."

"Cause for suspicion?"

"Just the day before, the leech was in kahoots with an Aryan Karimov, a suspected illegal arms dealer."

“How big is he?”

“Aryan Karimov is the head of Karimov Industries, also known as the Karimov family, the most influential family in Tajikistan. The members are in the parliament and on society pages. I’m not sure if they are just trying to break into the illegal arms trade or if they are already in neck-deep.”

"Do you think Stark is dealing under the table or is he being played?"

"That's what I'm trying to ascertain, sir."

"Good. Proceed."

"Yes, sir."

Feeling cautiously relieved, Natasha takes sweets and a couple of items of cosmetics from a duty-free shop. She pays for her purchases and moves towards the boarding area. Once on the plane, she settles in, puts her blindfold on and pretends to nod off. She lets her face muscles relax and for the first time since Lorraine dropped the shell bomb of her handler's name in her lap, she can breathe easier.

She is almost sure now that Coulson isn’t compromised. At least it’s highly unlikely that Lorraine is actually in any way his associate. If he were, Coulson would have called her off. But whatever their connection (if there even is one), Coulson is unaware of it.

The passenger in front of her is complaining about the freshness of his juice and Natasha imagines what would happen if she blew a raspberry every time he said I. She would pretend to sleep when the obnoxious man started looking for the offender, of course. But it would be fun and it would make the flight attendant feel better.

Too bad she can't afford the attention.

In London, she has to clear her throat twice before the local junior agent realizes she's the one he's been waiting for. She takes it as a compliment, but still stares at him as if she’s his CO. That he has no idea of her rank makes him swallow convulsively.

Natasha doesn’t smile.

"Report," she tells him the moment their car starts moving.

"The plane from Abu Dhabi landed on time and the subject sat into the limo ordered for Mr. S-" Natasha raises her eyebrow. "-his companion. They drove straight to the… ancestral mansion at  890 Fifth Avenue . According to Agent Steipenhauer, they are still there.”

“Excellent.” She bestows him with a brilliant smile to ensure he would have trouble refusing when she’ll need a favor so outrageous he’d never even think of doing it for anyone else.

The agent blushes. Good.

Natasha takes a room at the hotel where she can keep an eye on the front door and orders the junior agent to find a room with the view on the back garden.

During the next 24h Stark and Lorraine don't come out once. In the evening they have a tailor and a stylist come in who spend there almost three hours. Natasha bumps into the stylist later and finds out that Stark and Lorraine are going to a wedding. As a couple. Well, that’s curious.

She arranges a job for herself there and watches them arrive. Both men wear suits, vaguely matching in style, but Stark has a dark red tie and Lorraine purple. Strangely, they don’t crash. Lorrain has his palm on Stark’s back, he opens doors, seems attentive and makes Stark laugh. From the distance, it’s unclear how sincere he is. In close inspection, it seems that Stark is quite taken with his escort but hiding it well. Lorraine… is a grey horse. Seems that Stark is, once again, being taken for a ride.

Damn.

She just hopes that it’s a case of corporate espionage, not a potential national security breach.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you! I really appreciate any feedback.  
> Also, feel free to submit guesses about what is going on. :)


End file.
